Archive for the ‘Musical Technique’ Category

http://micro.soonlabel.com/harmonic_series/aeolian_harp/20170311_micronation_aeolian.mp3Micronation is an audio experiment where I took a ~30 seconds of aeolian harp captured during a high wind event and used Melodyne to determine each of four root notes by frequency. [The strings were tuned justly by ear but drift after several hours exposure to the elements outside, especially due to temperature changes] Then I used Paul’s Extreme Sound Stretch to isolation each vertical harmonic structure based upon the roots determined by Melodyne (10 harmonics high by 25 cents wide)and exporting the four files. Then I used Sonar to sequence the exported wav files and applied reverb, EQ, and tape simulation. The experimentally determined roots are 92 Hz, 118 Hz[59/46], 140 Hz[35/23], and 184 Hz [ 2/1 the octave of 92].

Linnstrument Improvisation in 106 edo (audio only) is a moderate length piece that explores the wonderful soundscape that 106 edo can create. In a previous post I received this comment on Reddit’s microtonal subreddit “I generally like the sound of Bohlen-Pierce. I’m interested in this piece but confused by your methodology.” So I thought I would write something about my improvisation method as the video compiles. Essentially my approach to improvisations is an aurally informed pattern recognition with development. If you watch the video closely you will see places where I run into a note combination I don’t like and back away from it somewhat quickly and in others where I find a fingering I like and replicate it in either hand or as “blocks” played off against each other. 106 notes per octave makes melodic development especially challenging though it is rich harmonically with many nuances and to my ears a way of letting you settle into a harmony that may at first sound strange but re-orientates your ears to hear it as pleasing or at least interesting. Certainly with 106 edo it is very hard to get caught up in 12 edo sounding cliches! So I hope that gives a little bit of an answer to the question I received on Reddit. video download

Best viewed at the highest resolution available. The native video is in 1080p

By using Celemony’s Melodyne Editor I rearrange the notes within a droning sample from my DIY electric aeolian harp. The tuning is nominally Bohlen-Pierce (stock with Melodyne) but the nature of the aeolian harp means additional pitches are present.
Download Audio or Video

I take trip through Shoom after Keenan Lawler mentioned it, and I found I actually had it installed. It is a superb microtonal aware synthesizer that is also a controller. My tour is a bit leisurely and only goes into a bit of what this program can do. It is highly recommended. It was $5.99 when it was first released, currently I believe the app store price is $9.99 – still quite affordable. The noise you hear in places are the actual (and unusual) preset settings of the app.

A video demo of the Gestrument, an algorithmic music composition iPad program that supports alternate tunings. It works hand in hand with ScaleGen (not shown here) for $13.99 bought as a bundle. Its a great value and has a long list of features such as morphing of tunings, recording, a nice selection of voices and output of midi.

Here is a short demonstration video of the split mode as implemented in the original Linnstrument. By using the split mode one can access all 200 pads. With a judicious selection of synthesizer and range one can extend a tuning well beyond the current midi standard of 128 notes. The short demonstration piece uses two non-octave tunings => 5/4 divided into 4 and 5/4 divided into 8 notes respectively.